A comprehensive cell capacitor energy control strategy of a modular multilevel converter (MMC) without a stiff DC bus voltage source

Cell capacitor energy control of a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is conventionally done by controlling leg current and modulation strategy. In most of literatures, leg current transient is analyzed under an assumption that the DC bus is a stiff DC voltage source. In a real MMC-based HVDC transmission system, however, there´s no such virtual stiff DC voltage source and the conventional regulation method can lead to poor dynamics of cell capacitor energy control and even make system unstable. In this paper, the MMC model is revised for circulating current transient analysis. Based on the revised model, a new comprehensive cell capacitor energy control strategy is proposed by updating leg capacitor energy reference on-line and injecting positive and negative sequence circulating currents. Validity of the proposed method is verified by a 7-level scaled version prototype experimental setup.